Abstract

Cyber-infrastructure systems are integrated large-scale IT systems designed with the goal of transforming scientific practice by enabling multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration. Their large scale and socio-technical complexity make design decisions for their underlying architecture practically irreversible. Drawing on three alternative theories of IT adoption (path dependence, project management, technology framing) and on a qualitative study of archival and interview data I examine how design and development influence the adoption trajectory of four competing cyber-infrastructure systems comprising the Global Environment for Network Innovations (www.geni.net) over a period of ten years (2001-2011). Findings indicate that a) early design decisions, particularly those related to similar pre-existing systems set a path of adoption in motion leading to the early dominance of one system, b) coordination of milestones led to increased adoption for the high-performing teams, and c) the framing of technology presentations and demos as a social influence strategy was less effective in “breaking” the dominant system’s adoption path in the long term but enabled most of the development teams to challenge that dominance and increase the adoption of their systems in the short term. While studies in path dependence and dominant design assume that adoption and dominance occurs through users’ actions after development is completed, this study’s findings show that developers and managers of competing systems can also influence adoption and even “break” the dominant system’s adoption path while it’s still under development. Understanding how cyber-infrastructure systems are developed is key to promoting their adoption and use. This research has import for understanding the ramifications of early-stage design decisions, as well as the impact of project coordination and technology presentation strategies such as framing for the adoption of such systems.